March: Digi Digest Feature

March: Digi Digest Feature

It’s an exciting time in the performance marketing world. A multitude of changes, both macro and micro, are sweeping through the industry, presenting marketers with additional opportunities to deliver optimized results for clients. Take a look at the articles included below, which contain insights from industry experts.

For the first time, digital ad spend is forecasted to surpass TV spend for the first time, and TV will drop below one third of total ad spend by 2020. Digital ad spend is projected to increase by 15.4% this year to $68.82 billion, with mobile driving growth in the segment and representing 63.4% of total digital ad spend in the US in 2016.

According to Adobe Digital Index’s Q4 2015 Digital Advertising Report, paid search growth momentum is slowing, which can be partially attributed to advertisers’ new willingness to spend on mobile search. Advertisers are drawn to mobile because of the high content consumption levels on mobile as well as a relatively smaller CPC compared to desktop. Mobile spend now accounts for 37% of all SEM spend (up 23% YoY), revealing that the gap between consumer behavior and advertiser spend is shrinking as well, since mobile browsing accounts for 41% of all site visits.

Google is currently testing a scrollable carousel of PLAs in an effort to create a uniform experience across desktop and mobile. Additionally, when a search includes a qualifier like “top” or “best”, PLAs will be numbered or ranked. In practice, this change will entail top-rated products that are selected to participate in an auction and compete against one another for ad position.

Facebook will update the algorithm used to display content in a user’s News Feed so that live videos are ranked much higher. The company has been pushing its live video service aggressively since the feature was first introduced in August. Facebook’s audience is watching increasing amounts of video on the platform, which averages 3 billion video views daily. Facebook is just one of several live streaming options available to users, as Periscope and Meerkat also have established user bases.

Esports, or professional video gaming, is a fast-growing segment within the sports world, with an audience of 256 million viewers that is expected to grow to 345 million viewers by 2019. Additionally, revenue growth is strong in this sector, and by 2019, esports is expected to become an almost $1.1 billion industry. This phenomenal growth is significant for marketers specifically because online advertising is the fastest-growing revenue segment within esports, growing 99.6% globally since 2014.

Mobile devices changed the way people consume health information, as over 153 million people accessed health media on a smartphone or tablet in January 2016, with almost half exclusively visiting from these devices. Additionally, the market for wearables is growing and here to stay, with creative messaging speaking to a wide audience and brands enticing consumers by appealing to their desire to be healthy. Multiple fitness tracking apps are also experiencing tremendous growth, with users often sharing information through various digital channels. Lastly, nutrition tracking is becoming more popular because consumers can now easily monitor their health on their mobile devices.

Data from Google suggests that consumers are more frequently turning to digital means for research at all stages of the car purchase funnel. Specifically, searches for pictures of automotive brands, suggested retail prices, list prices and inventory have all grown over the last two years, meaning that consumer intent is moving towards a desire for digital brand interactions. Additionally, US car shoppers are not only using mobile devices as they research new cars, they even prefer them for certain activities. For example, two in five consumers prefer to book a test drive from a mobile device. This research reveals that mobile devices have also become a key part of what consumers want from the car shopping process.

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